This invention relates to cardboard picture mats with tinted areas and to a method of tinting those areas. Such mats are often called French mats in the United States and are often called wash-line mounts in England. The invention also relates to other art methods where a coloring effect resembling watercolor is desired without using water.
Cardboard picture mats are used for mounting various types of graphic art including watercolor paintings, lithographic and other prints, etchings, engravings, photographs, and so on. Mat boards are available in many colors, yet it is often desirable to use a color which the suppliers and framers do not have in stock. Moreover, it is often desirable to have more than one color on a particular mat, and such plural-color mats are not carried in stock but have to be made individually.
In some instances, the artists, framers, or studio technicians will seek to vary the mats by applying watercolor paints to them. This is a very difficult job to do with perfect evenness, and it must always be done carefully, and it is especially difficult when the idea is to apply the color only to certain delimited areas. The paint is likely to overrun the border, it is likely to streak, and few people are possessed with the needed technical ability and steadiness to perform the task. Moreover, the water has a tendency to warp the mat, distort it from true flatness, or even to cause separation of the laminations. Watercolor, once applied, cannot be removed. Also, application of watercolors is affected by temperature and humidity.
The present invention makes it much easier to perform such a task and to avoid streaking, warping, separation of laminations, and so on. An object of the invention is to enable the preparation of cardboard picture mats with various colors applied to chosen areas thereof and to make this job one that does not require great skill and which most people are able to perform with relative ease.
Another object of the invention is to enable a wide variety of such colors to be applied without difficulty.
Another object is to provide mats where the colors do not fade.
Another object is to enable changes in the applied tone after its application and to enable erasure and reapplication.
Another object is to provide a new technique of wide applicability for the application of color areas not only to mats but also to paper and other suitable base materials.